


Unknown Histories

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Naruto's Infancy, Unexplored Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-27
Updated: 2015-05-27
Packaged: 2018-04-01 13:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4020934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No babe could live without a caretaker. The Sandaime had given her this responsibility.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unknown Histories

It was strange and beautiful to see it. 

The whole village, crowded together, screaming and crying his praises. They hugged him and kissed him, tearfully thanking him and offering so much to him. He just wearily smiled, tired and tinged in sadness. She remembered feeling just like that, though perhaps for different reasons. She couldn't imagine what he went through during that war, or why he so desperately didn't wish to talk about it. 

She watched him as he passed by, solemn weight on his shoulders and in his heart. 

"You always were destined for greatness."

He stopped and looked up at her. For the first time in many, many years, he locked gazes with her on purpose. In the depths of his eyes, she saw flint strike steel. A more genuine smile came to his face. 

* * *

_He wasn't too small for a babe, but neither was he particularly large. Well, both Minato and Kushina had been slender people, thin and strong like bamboo. Maybe their son would possess the same fortitude._

_"I need you to take care of him in his infancy. We'll take him from you when he's old enough to take care of himself." The Sandaime said._

_"Why would you not give him to me permanently?"_

_"You would tell him who his parents were and why he's alone."_

_She cradled the babe close, stroking carefully down his cheek. "He deserves love."_

_"And he will have it."_

_"You give him hate."_

_Hiruzen looked at her oddly. "What do you mean?"_

_"There will be no love for him from the village. There will be only blame and hate. You do more damage than you think." She stood, eyes fixed on the small face. "But I will heed your command. I will care for him."_

* * *

He looked at her now, those blue eyes slowly simmering with their former shine. 

"I don't know what you saw. And seeing your face, neither do I wish to. But I do know that greatness came to you, and you surpassed it."

He blinked at her, startled at her strange and cryptic compliment. 

"Such are the horrors of war, I seen in your eyes. Such are the chains of the dead which weigh you down. I can see it. And I am sorry."

He walked up the short stairs to where she sat, taking the seat beside her. Speechless, he watched her, as she had done for so many years. 

"I am sorry for the fire you strain to maintain, that it has so many who fight to douse it. I am sorry that you attract nightly creatures when you are a product of daylight. I am sorry that you know and understand things which most will never recognize. I am sorry that it had to be you."

Gingerly, he reached out and took her hand. 

* * *

_She did not buy a cradle. She did not by a pen. She kept around her house, his small body tucked close to her breast._

_"You will be great." She whispered to him in a quiet evening, a fingertip tracing the scars on his cheeks. His blue, blue eyes were riveted to her face, flickering with comprehension of her words. "You will be great; a hero. And you will be loved before the end comes for you. I will wish for nothing but the best for you, for every dream to come true. For every love to be fulfilled. Above all, I will wish you peace, both in your mind and in your heart. Though you many never recognize my face or recall fondly the colour of my eyes, I will hope for you and I will love you, until such time as the breath leaves my chest and I am spirited away."_

_A small hand wriggled from within the blankets, reaching up with smooth and flawless skin to touch her face. He stayed silent, eyes bright and understanding._

* * *

"You know me, don't you?" He whispered, brilliance flaring to life as spark caught kindling and the fire roared back from the embers. 

"I do." She replied, letting her fingers curl gently into his hand as they once had while stroking his face. "I have known you since you were an infant. I have understood you since the first moment I held you."

"I know you . . . but I don't." He grasped her hand tighter. "Who are you?"

She smiled delicately. "I am a villager, a woman. I was a friend to Hiruzen, but an outsider."

He chuckled lowly. "You speak in a lot of riddles, don't you?"

"There were never many people who understood what I meant. Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Minato, Kushina . . . Itachi. And you. From the time you could open your eyes and before, you understood. You always could. You were destined for greatness, just as the others who knew, who cared to know. You are just as much my child as you are theirs."

Realization lit up his face, but slow. She supposed that just as the dawn, his knowledge was one to be patient with, but awed by in the end. "Kaa-san?"

"Naruto, my babe."

 

 


End file.
